The Masked Singer season 7 round-up post
Feb. 15th, 2026 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessEpisode 3 had a ‘sport’s day’ theme and Freddie Flintoff as a guest panellist. The best vocal was from Toastie, singing ‘Run to You’, the worst vocal was Yak, the most entertaining performance came from Conkers doing ‘Jump Around’ and completely changing who I thought he was. The most surreal moment involved Joel lying down and spooning a cartoon egg. Arctic Fox’s costume had the best silhouette, though. Yak was revealed to be John Lydon.
In episode 4, I realised I’d failed to mention Red Panda when I wrote up the first two episodes, even though I take notes!? There was a cartoonish ‘spooky’ theme, and Ben Shepherd joined the panel as a scary scarecrow. Moth had the best vocal, but also the most literal staging: she was having dinner with a dancer dressed as a vampire as she sang ‘Vampire’. The weirdest vocal was Gargoyle’s quasi-operatic ‘Bring Me To Life’, with a tip of the hat to Red Panda’s falsetto in ‘Bat out of Hell’. The most entertaining performance came from Can of Worms doing the Ghostbusters theme. Gargoyle was Marcella Detroit (from Shakespear’s Sister.)
Perrie Edwards was a guest panellist in episode 5. Red Panda, singing ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ had the weirders vocal. (How can you have a gruff falsetto?) The most entertaining performance was Can of Worms doing dancehall. I couldn’t decide which were the best ursine fake backing singers between Red Panda’s giant pandas and Arctic Fox’s polar bears.
I thought Monkey Business was someone older, but she turned out to be Kate Nash. Nobody had told Perrie that Prue Leith had already performed on the show in a past series. Arctic Fox was unmasked as Anton Du Beke, who I’d guessed before the panel, thank you very much.
I was deeply uninvested in finding out who Mole Dommett was, but it turned out to be Olly Murs, who joined the panel for episode 6. Toastie had the best vocal, having killed ‘River Deep, Mountain High’. Sloth did the best performance – ‘Tubthumping’ with sheep on exercise bikes behind him. He lived the lyric of ‘falling down’ three times, and needed Joel and Mo’s help to lift him at the end. Can of Worms sang ‘Pure Imagination’ with decent pitch and earned the label ‘most versatile performer’. Best Alan Carr impersonation: Red Panda. He was unmasked and turned out to be Harry Hill, who’d done it because Mo kept guessing him last year, and who’d been deliberately channelling Carr.
A pregnant Katherine ‘Pidgeon’ Ryan joined the panel. Everyone performed twice. The best vocal came from Toastie singing ‘It’s Raining Men’, although Moth gave the best interpretation of a song with ‘The Colour of the Wind’. Sloth probably did the craziest performance, donning a tutu for ‘We All Stand Together’ – or is it called the Frog Chorus? He was unmasked, and turned out to be Ben Fogle. I’d have liked Conkers to have been voted off, because he was the weakest singer left, but Can of Worms was unmasked as Marvin from JLS – the panel had been somewhat divided as to which JLS member he was. He’d rapped and sung decently!
The final was opened by Samantha Barks singing ‘Golden’ – so guess what colour she and the dancers were mainly wearing? She then joined the panel.
Conkers sang a feelgood song in ‘Get On Up’…in tune. The staging involved Renaissance fayre style dressed dancers and the panto horse. Mostly the panel stuck to their previous guesses, Samantha threw in Jon Richardson. Moth sang a lovely cover of ‘I Wanna Know What Love Is’ in front of red curtains covered by moths, with red-dressed dancers. The regular panellists were divided between guessing Jamelia and Keisha. Toastie’s clues included beans/windy (which I presumed, as Joanathan did, was a reference to the windy city i.e. Chicago, though I assumed it was the musical). She sang the gospel song ‘A Star is Born’ so there were literal stars, cheese chunks as fake backing singers, and a chicken and a mouse seated on a moon for good measure. There was an excellent vocal underneath it all. SB guessed Vanessa Williams, the others mostly stuck to their previous guesses.
Did we learn anything new from that first round? No, Toastie has the best voice, Moth is a good singer, Conkers…is an energetic performer.
Next round was duets, and Snail (Andrea Corr) lowered herself to sing ‘I’ve had the time of my life’ with Conkers. They’d done something to their mics, but she outclassed him by A LOT. He could dance a little as they sang, while she could only sway. Moth duetted with Lionfish (Will Young) to ‘Like It’s the Last Night’, which I don’t really know. I thought his more distinctive and powerful voice overpowered hers. He raised the panel’s eyebrows by guessing Rita Ora. (Maybe the producers took notes for next year.) Toastie duetted with Pufferfish (Samantha Barks) on ‘Sisters are doing it for themselves’ and it had joyous runs and a gorgeous a capella final note. If they couldn’t get Gregory Porter or maybe Keala Settle, this was the best they could do, and it was the best duet of the three. Samantha was now guessing Beverly Knight (I thought not, because she’s got a lower tone) or Mica Paris.
I thought that the first audience vote really was the time for Conkers, clearly not a pro singer, to go, but they voted for Toastie. My immediate reaction was very rude. Three of the panellists plumped for Mica Paris, and it was her, so I guess bragging rights go to Davina who was the first to guess her. The best singer all season briefly reprised ‘A Star is Born’.
In a new twist, both Moth and Conkers were brought on stage to sing bursts of ‘The Only Girl In the World’ and ‘Mr Brightside’ respectively – and certainly the second time round, she was doing amazing riffs, while he was…shout-singing. Then they combined to sing ‘Am I Ready To Be Loved?’ Everyone in the studio got overexcited, I gritted my teeth. I don’t think this added much, and I always quite liked the contestants performing their favourite song of the series again in the final.
The final vote went to the proper singer who was left, (oh, thank goodness) and the panel were asked to guess who Conkers was. Mo changed his guess, the rest stuck to theirs, and he was revealed to be Ben Shepherd, to Joel and the panel’s utter surprise. Maya had to explain to Samantha that he’d been on the panel earlier that season (which explains why the producers kept him until the final and seriously undermines any thought that the voting is fair.) Very insider ITV baseball, no?
The panel were asked to guess one last time who Moth was, three plumped for Jamelia, Maya stuck to Keisha Sugababes, and I tended to agree, though I thought the clues pointed more to Jamelia. And it was Keisha, well done, Maya. As the second best singer this series, she’s a worthy winner. She sounded good singing ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ unmasked.
Overall, I guessed two out of 14 (although does ‘Mole Dommett’ even count when I didn’t hear him sing and didn’t ‘follow the clues’, and I don’t think I guessed Keisha for Moth before Maya did.
In episode 4, I realised I’d failed to mention Red Panda when I wrote up the first two episodes, even though I take notes!? There was a cartoonish ‘spooky’ theme, and Ben Shepherd joined the panel as a scary scarecrow. Moth had the best vocal, but also the most literal staging: she was having dinner with a dancer dressed as a vampire as she sang ‘Vampire’. The weirdest vocal was Gargoyle’s quasi-operatic ‘Bring Me To Life’, with a tip of the hat to Red Panda’s falsetto in ‘Bat out of Hell’. The most entertaining performance came from Can of Worms doing the Ghostbusters theme. Gargoyle was Marcella Detroit (from Shakespear’s Sister.)
Perrie Edwards was a guest panellist in episode 5. Red Panda, singing ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ had the weirders vocal. (How can you have a gruff falsetto?) The most entertaining performance was Can of Worms doing dancehall. I couldn’t decide which were the best ursine fake backing singers between Red Panda’s giant pandas and Arctic Fox’s polar bears.
I thought Monkey Business was someone older, but she turned out to be Kate Nash. Nobody had told Perrie that Prue Leith had already performed on the show in a past series. Arctic Fox was unmasked as Anton Du Beke, who I’d guessed before the panel, thank you very much.
I was deeply uninvested in finding out who Mole Dommett was, but it turned out to be Olly Murs, who joined the panel for episode 6. Toastie had the best vocal, having killed ‘River Deep, Mountain High’. Sloth did the best performance – ‘Tubthumping’ with sheep on exercise bikes behind him. He lived the lyric of ‘falling down’ three times, and needed Joel and Mo’s help to lift him at the end. Can of Worms sang ‘Pure Imagination’ with decent pitch and earned the label ‘most versatile performer’. Best Alan Carr impersonation: Red Panda. He was unmasked and turned out to be Harry Hill, who’d done it because Mo kept guessing him last year, and who’d been deliberately channelling Carr.
A pregnant Katherine ‘Pidgeon’ Ryan joined the panel. Everyone performed twice. The best vocal came from Toastie singing ‘It’s Raining Men’, although Moth gave the best interpretation of a song with ‘The Colour of the Wind’. Sloth probably did the craziest performance, donning a tutu for ‘We All Stand Together’ – or is it called the Frog Chorus? He was unmasked, and turned out to be Ben Fogle. I’d have liked Conkers to have been voted off, because he was the weakest singer left, but Can of Worms was unmasked as Marvin from JLS – the panel had been somewhat divided as to which JLS member he was. He’d rapped and sung decently!
The final was opened by Samantha Barks singing ‘Golden’ – so guess what colour she and the dancers were mainly wearing? She then joined the panel.
Conkers sang a feelgood song in ‘Get On Up’…in tune. The staging involved Renaissance fayre style dressed dancers and the panto horse. Mostly the panel stuck to their previous guesses, Samantha threw in Jon Richardson. Moth sang a lovely cover of ‘I Wanna Know What Love Is’ in front of red curtains covered by moths, with red-dressed dancers. The regular panellists were divided between guessing Jamelia and Keisha. Toastie’s clues included beans/windy (which I presumed, as Joanathan did, was a reference to the windy city i.e. Chicago, though I assumed it was the musical). She sang the gospel song ‘A Star is Born’ so there were literal stars, cheese chunks as fake backing singers, and a chicken and a mouse seated on a moon for good measure. There was an excellent vocal underneath it all. SB guessed Vanessa Williams, the others mostly stuck to their previous guesses.
Did we learn anything new from that first round? No, Toastie has the best voice, Moth is a good singer, Conkers…is an energetic performer.
Next round was duets, and Snail (Andrea Corr) lowered herself to sing ‘I’ve had the time of my life’ with Conkers. They’d done something to their mics, but she outclassed him by A LOT. He could dance a little as they sang, while she could only sway. Moth duetted with Lionfish (Will Young) to ‘Like It’s the Last Night’, which I don’t really know. I thought his more distinctive and powerful voice overpowered hers. He raised the panel’s eyebrows by guessing Rita Ora. (Maybe the producers took notes for next year.) Toastie duetted with Pufferfish (Samantha Barks) on ‘Sisters are doing it for themselves’ and it had joyous runs and a gorgeous a capella final note. If they couldn’t get Gregory Porter or maybe Keala Settle, this was the best they could do, and it was the best duet of the three. Samantha was now guessing Beverly Knight (I thought not, because she’s got a lower tone) or Mica Paris.
I thought that the first audience vote really was the time for Conkers, clearly not a pro singer, to go, but they voted for Toastie. My immediate reaction was very rude. Three of the panellists plumped for Mica Paris, and it was her, so I guess bragging rights go to Davina who was the first to guess her. The best singer all season briefly reprised ‘A Star is Born’.
In a new twist, both Moth and Conkers were brought on stage to sing bursts of ‘The Only Girl In the World’ and ‘Mr Brightside’ respectively – and certainly the second time round, she was doing amazing riffs, while he was…shout-singing. Then they combined to sing ‘Am I Ready To Be Loved?’ Everyone in the studio got overexcited, I gritted my teeth. I don’t think this added much, and I always quite liked the contestants performing their favourite song of the series again in the final.
The final vote went to the proper singer who was left, (oh, thank goodness) and the panel were asked to guess who Conkers was. Mo changed his guess, the rest stuck to theirs, and he was revealed to be Ben Shepherd, to Joel and the panel’s utter surprise. Maya had to explain to Samantha that he’d been on the panel earlier that season (which explains why the producers kept him until the final and seriously undermines any thought that the voting is fair.) Very insider ITV baseball, no?
The panel were asked to guess one last time who Moth was, three plumped for Jamelia, Maya stuck to Keisha Sugababes, and I tended to agree, though I thought the clues pointed more to Jamelia. And it was Keisha, well done, Maya. As the second best singer this series, she’s a worthy winner. She sounded good singing ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ unmasked.
Overall, I guessed two out of 14 (although does ‘Mole Dommett’ even count when I didn’t hear him sing and didn’t ‘follow the clues’, and I don’t think I guessed Keisha for Moth before Maya did.
